Inevitable
by Recognition2
Summary: New is always better. And no matter how hard he tried, Ethan could not be new. Because unluckily for him, he was forever branded in Lyra's mind as the little boy who climbed trees and dreamt of a future that consisted of the two of them, just the two of them. In her eyes, he could never be an adult. And that was all she seemed to want.


**Yay! My very first fic! :) Not exactly the best first impression, since this was written around 2 to 3 a.m. in the morning, but I thought it was fairly decent and my friend has been begging me to post my work here for weeks. Looking back at it, there are a lot of run-on sentences, but I kind of like it that way. Anyway, hope you enjoy!**

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She had changed. Ethan was sure of it.

She hadn't really changed, per se. She still wore the same overalls and thigh-high socks. She still had the same silly pigtails and even the same ridiculously puffy white hat that he loved because it was _so Lyra_; weird and unique but still wonderful if looked at in a Lyra perspective (which meant positive, _all the time_).

But there was something about her, something about her presence, that told him so. There was something in the way her face looked so aged and worn, how her bright smile had suddenly become dull and forced. There was even something in the way she sat, how she slouched instead of sitting straight and proper. Her eyes, which had previously just been shiny, bright, chocolate orbs glimmering with innocence, suddenly had so much depth. They seemed limitless, despite her age, and it just looked so weird on her because Ethan was not used to this serious shadow of his former childhood friend.

He hadn't noticed such little things before, but now it was all he could miss, because they weren't there anymore.

They had promised each other they wouldn't change, no matter what, and it seemed to be going well until she met _him_. Silver. And suddenly, she was fast, too fast, rushing from town to town like an unruly whirlwind, grabbing badges here and there until she was suddenly Champion. And suddenly, other things were more important than the boy and his little Marill, than the town of memories that she had left behind in the dust of her success. She was in a rush to grow up, to be a adult. To be an adult with Silver. Because he was the future, he was new, and new was always better.

And no matter how hard he tried, Ethan could not be the future. He could not be _new_, because he had been branded for life in her mind as the reckless little boy who climbed trees and dreamed with her a future that consisted of the two of them, just the two of them. In her eyes, he could never be an adult. And that was all she seemed to want.

So when she came back to the little town after nearly a decade, massive Dragonite in tow, he almost didn't want to go and greet her because that girl was not his childhood friend. She was not the girl who he had spent his first years of life with, whom he had climbed trees and dreamt about the future with. She was a stranger who just so happened to look exactly like her, but she was not her. Lyra would come skipping down the road, a relaxed air surrounding her, and would go knocking on his window with a goofy smile playing in her lips. But this girl strolled quietly, carefully, as though she were walking on land mines. She carried a sort of grace, a sort of powerfulness that just wasn't Lyra.

And so he didn't. And when she questioned him about it a few days later, he simply said, "You're not Lyra." And she left, hurt of course, but he knew she'd get over it. After all, she had already managed to get over him years ago.

And she did. With Silver.

It was better this way. Because childhood friends weren't forever, or didn't need to be. They had said they wouldn't change, but they both knew, deep inside, that they couldn't stop time and live in the safe, carefree world they had created anymore. It was inevitable.

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**So? How was it? I actually LOVE Ethan/Lyra, and I wish there were more fics on here with this couple! But anyway, constructive criticism is openly welcome, nothing too harsh! :)**


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